2141: Become a God of Learning Your Trade AND Confidence in Your Business by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on Entrepreneur Mindset

[00:00:00] Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hung on her every word. My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana! Twas a lovely SUV, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it! Tonight we feast! An offer you can feast on. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.

[00:00:30] This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify.

[00:01:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. Become a God of Learning Your Trade by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits

[00:01:09] A lot of you are like me, trying to do what you love and figuring out the best way to do that. It's not always easy to do what you love, because you aren't sure you're good at it, you don't know if it'll work, you don't know if people will like it, you don't know how to get better, you doubt your ability to succeed, and you might spend months working on something only to have it fail.

[00:01:31] And these are tough problems. But I have a method for beating them, and it's a simple trick. Do it in public, and get immediate feedback. It's one of the most powerful things you can implement, I promise. Here's why and how. The Lessons of Street Performers

[00:01:48] Consider the street musician, or juggler, or magician. They do a show in public, in front of people who have other things to do and haven't planned on watching a show, and have to convince that crowd not only to watch, but to pay them money after having already seen the show. That's an amazing business model. If a street performer isn't good, people won't watch. But making a small change in the performance, like a better setup or a better patter, can make huge changes in audience reaction and payment.

[00:02:15] And here's the thing. They see the effects of those small changes immediately. There's no wondering, will this work? Will it be an improvement or make things worse? Because they know if it works, if it makes things better or worse, right away. Instant feedback is the most valuable thing you can get. It's better even than a sale, because a sale might result in a satisfied customer, or it might not. And the sale doesn't tell you how to improve.

[00:02:39] Whatever you want to do, if you can do something publicly, even in front of a small group, and get instant feedback, that's pure gold. There's no better way to improve. There's no better way to evolve a method or creative process or business model than through this simple technique of constant iteration and natural selection. How to evolve like a street performer

[00:03:01] Blogging is one of the best ways to do something in public. Consider, you write about an idea, and you get instant feedback from readers, in comments, emails, tweets, G-plus posts, etc. When I started Zen Habits, I don't think I was that great. I wrote a bunch of posts that didn't thrill readers. I wrote a couple that did thrill some people. And so I learned what works best as a writer, more than I'd learned as a writer in the entire previous decade of writing.

[00:03:26] Through this kind of public writing, instant feedback, and constant evolving, I got better over the course of months, not years. No matter what you do, you can put ideas out on a blog. You can also put software out to beta testers as soon as possible, with the simplest possible version of the software. You can test recipes by making them for people, maybe selling them on the street in a cart. Artists can put artwork online instantly. Musicians and actors can put stuff on YouTube.

[00:03:53] A business can put itself online in as small an iteration as possible, without taking months of blind development. For some work, it will take a bit more creativity. But use this idea of working in public, getting instant feedback, and evolving through constant iterations to improve better and faster than ever before. I admit it can be scary, which is why you can start with a small group, less public but still using the same ideas, and grow the audience as you grow more confident.

[00:04:21] Be a street performer. There's no better way to get amazing at something. Confidence in Your Business, by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits The urgent desire for a successful business, and the fear of losing business, drives many a good person to do sleazy things. I'm not talking about casino owners, or pimps, or politicians, or corporations. I'm talking about good, small business owners who become marketers.

[00:04:50] Let's say you have a blog, and you write good stuff, and people like it. Now what? How do you build that into a business? Maybe you see people who've made millions online. How did they do it? Internet marketing. They built mailing lists, then manipulated those lists through emotional tactics, social proof, creating false urgency, building funnels, warming up the lists, making the potential customers think they need this or they'll fail. You see this success, and all of a sudden you want it.

[00:05:19] You don't know how to build a business, but this guy did it, and he's successful. So you buy his course and follow his advice. All of a sudden, your excellent blog is pushing me to join a mailing list to get a free report. There's a pop-up trying to get me to enter my email address. If I do, I start to get all kinds of emails I don't want, trying to push me into a funnel. You post a thousand things to social media trying to get me interested in your sale. You start to create an image you think I want, so I'll buy what you're selling. You're now a marketer, a manipulator.

[00:05:49] Untrustworthy. I hit unsubscribe. What if, instead, you had confidence in your business? You created something of value and believed it would help people. You made its value, and how much it helps people, your metrics. You'd do none of those things. All you'd do is create great things, and people would spread the word for you. You'd opt for simplicity and trustworthiness. You build confidence by putting everything you have into what you're building, by listening to people, and seeing whether what you're doing is helping, resonating,

[00:06:19] adjusting if needed. Those who don't come to you, you let go. What you're building isn't for everyone. The fear of losing business will always be there to some extent, but don't be driven by it. You just listened to the posts titled, Become a God of Learning Your Trade, and Confidence in Your Business, both by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net. Best thing that's ever happened to you financially. Go. Easy. Sold my car on Carvana.

[00:06:50] Amazing offer. Really? I hit 200 on the scratcher. Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check? No. How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once. Okay, that's fair. It's like the lottery, except you always win. Not like the lottery at all, actually. Exactly. Inexplicably good. Offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. This episode is brought to you by Accenture.

[00:07:18] When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. And thanks to Leo for both of these posts today.

[00:07:48] Zen Habits is all about finding simplicity and mindfulness in the daily chaos of our lives. It's about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what's important, create something amazing, and find happiness. It has over a million readers and was named one of the top 25 blogs by Time Magazine. And if you enjoy his work, come check out our other shows where we actually narrate more of Leo's content since he writes on so many different subjects. You can find all those shows by searching for Optimal Living Daily wherever you get your audio. And please do hit subscribe or follow

[00:08:17] in the podcast app of your choice to get all the new episodes daily. And it also helps us out, of course, in terms of our subscriber numbers and helps to keep the show going. Again, search for Optimal Living Daily, or you can come by oldpodcast.com, that's OLDpodcast.com, to see our full lineup. Okay, that's gonna do it for this episode. Hope you enjoyed both posts from Leo and that you'll join me again tomorrow for another article. And that is where your optimal life awaits.